Update on Hunger Strike

Taipei, April 17, 1999

On Saturday, 10 April 1999, a coalition of opposition groups in
Taiwan initiated a hunger
strike by supporters of Taiwan's independence, including
a number of legislators.

On Thursday, 15 April 1999, the hunger strikers were visited by
former Taipei mayor Chen Shui-bian. Chen praised the 24 participants
in the strike for their courage and dedication. He also urged the
people of Taiwan to give them moral support.

One of the hunger strikers, Mr. Yang Chin-hai, a member of the
National Assembly, had to be hospitalized on Thursday, the sixth day
of the activity. In the 1970s, Mr. Yang was one of Taiwan's most
well-known political prisoners, and was adopted by Amnesty
International as a prisoner of conscience.

Another hunger striker, DPP Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung, himself a
medical doctor, was reported to develop low blood pressure and was
suffering from periodic blackouts. Still, he wanted to continue.

Some of the other hunger strikers were also weakening, but others
were still able to talk with reporters and give impassioned media
interviews. One such interview was reported
by the London-based BBC.

In a related report on Saturday, 17 April 1999, it was announced
that lawmakers from the KMT and the DPP in the Legislative Yuan have
agreed to discuss a law to allow a plebiscite on Taiwan's formal
independence, on Tuesday, 20 April. However, they would not undertake
to pass it immediately.

That won't be enough to convince hunger strikers to end their fast,
which will pass the one-week mark today, said Trong Chai, a legislator
from the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which
launched the protest. "We welcome all discussion on this
matter,'' he said. "The hunger strike will continue until
all sides are committed to the law's passage.''

Three hunger strikers have dropped out but 25 others, including a
handful of legislators, say they will keep on refusing food until a
commitment is given to pass a plebiscite law or their bodies give out.

Set up in front of the legislature building in downtown Taipei, the
low-key protest harkens back to the early days of the island's
transition to democracy in the late 1980s when marches and hunger
strikes were frequent.